Inclusion Advisory Board official breaks ranks to decry the governing body’s
response to a spate of scandals that have engulfed English football

Serious doubt was cast on the Football Association’s commitment to diversity on Thursday night after another of its experts broke ranks to decry the governing body’s “questionable” approach to combating bigotry in the game.

In an exclusive interview with Telegraph Sport, Edward Lord, part of the panel formed to help shape the FA’s inclusivity agenda, expressed grave reservations about the governing body’s response to a spate of discrimination scandals that have engulfed English football.

Putting his place on the FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board at risk, Lord spoke out barely 10 months after its chairman, FA board member Heather Rabbatts, defied the principle of collective responsibility to condemn Greg Dyke’s all-white commission on the state of the national game.

Rabbatts’s intervention came shortly before the formation of the IAB, since which the FA has been confronted with the Richard Scudamore sexism scandal, a racism row involving former referee David Elleray, allegations a Leicester City employee was racially abused and vile text messages sent by former Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay.

Its response to some of these incidents has deeply disturbed Lord, who is also chairman of the UK’s Amateur Swimming Association and holds a range of prominent roles in sport, politics and business.

Despite claiming to be actively discouraged from doing so by the FA attempting to “control the message”, the 42-year-old felt compelled to break his silence and remain true to the principles that saw him awarded an OBE in 2011 and shortlisted for two prizes at the European Diversity Awards next month.

“The public and the rest of the sport industry are getting fed up with football’s inability to tackle discrimination in the game,” said Lord, nominated for Campaigner of the Year and Hero of the Year for the stand he took over the Scudamore affair. “Most other governing bodies have really embraced the need for change, to make their sports more inclusive. It always seems as though football is lagging behind. The FA must take action when participants so flagrantly breach their rules against discrimination.”

Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, appeared to do just that with his sexist emails but controversially avoided sanction due to an unwritten FA rule regarding private correspondence. Elleray, the FA’s referees chairman, also escaped with a slap on the wrist for racist remarks made to another official.

The latter case prompted planned changes to its internal disciplinary hearings but it still leaves Mackay as the only one of the trio in danger of a ban following the emergence of what may prove – like Scudamore’s – private exchanges.

The FA has repeatedly insisted disciplinary cases are dealt with on their “individual merits” but Lord branded such different responses to similar misconduct as “disappointing” and “questionable”.

“Perhaps the FA doesn’t know how to deal with those who are powerful within the game,” he added, before comparing its approach to inclusivity to that of other sports governing bodies.

Lord highlighted the fact that the owner of basketball team the Los Angeles Clippers had been banned for life for racist comments made in what he believed to be a private phone call, as well as the “very positive way” in which the ASA dealt with Olympic hero Tom Daley’s decision to come out last year, the kind of admission he fears football may only accept if several players broke cover en masse.

The game’s only openly bisexual male administrator and an ambassador for the charity Stonewall, Lord’s first involvement in football politics came when, at the age of 16, he helped oust comedian Tommy Cannon as chairman of his hometown club, Rochdale.

A career in Westminster followed, first with the Conservative Party and then the Liberal Democrats, before he embarked on a serious foray into sports administration by supporting London’s staging of the Olympics and Paralympics.

He was then invited to apply for a post on the IAB, something he said he was initially assured would not prevent him continuing to speak out. But he added: “We have not been encouraged to be public ambassadors for inclusion in the way that I hoped we would. The FA’s a very cautious organisation and there is a desire to control the message.”

Going off message, therefore, could backfire on Lord, who nevertheless described his IAB colleagues as “brilliant” and praised FA chairman Dyke for his recent outspoken comments about the governing body’s need to change its white, male make-up. “Greg is the hope for the future of the FA,” he said, claiming Dyke was “held back” by the FA’s governance structures.

Lord, who like Dyke inherited an organisation in the ASA which was in dire need of improved governance and more diversity, added: “I very much hope that I can work with Greg in changing the FA and making it a better place.”